Well, I took another look at the A Voice for Men Facebook page. Lo and behold, their little meme makers have been working overtime! So here’s a little gallery of some of their latest work.
I have to admit that these aren’t quite as baffling as the John Galt meme originals we looked at a couple of weeks ago, or these also-very-confusing AVFM memes I posted last spring. But they are pretty darn terrible, in all respects.
Click on the pics to see the originals on Facebook, complete with thoughtful commentary from AVFM’s fans (except in the case of this next one, which I found reposted on an anti-MRA Facebook).
As always, if any of you are inspired to make EVEN MORE TERRIBLE AVFM memes, please post them in the comments below!
The last comic is my favourite.
“Women won’t bang me and that’s making me feel bad! Pussyconomics conspiracy!”
“Why don’t you try becoming a more attractive person so women like you?”
“MISANDRY!!!!!!!”
Mr.Misogyny knows very little about men and women. He seems to think we’re all cartoon versions of his fears and insecurities. Men as a gender aren’t obsessed with porn. Some men like porn. Some women like porn. Women’s erotica is very popular. Felicia Day has a book club called Vaginal Fantasies dedicated to enjoying and discussing smut, problematic aspects, goofiness and all. Porn is something that couples who dig that kind of thing watch together. Getting off is not and never has been a male only activity.
Funny related stories:
A local video store was closing and they had all of their merch marked way down. My buddy called me up and told me that we were going to go video shopping together because she was cleaning out their hentai section and did not want to be by herself when she marched up top the register with her armfuls of animated porn. I complied because that is what friends are for: sharing your shame and perversity. I wasn’t buying anything, but I did giggle and “Ooo” and “Ahh” with her over her selections. We left with bags of porn.
Ah, memories.
Another time a guy I knew complained that his wife never left him alone with their new baby and he wanted some daddy time. So, to help out some other friends and I invited her to go to the sex toy and raunchy movie house just out of town. Since she could not take the baby, he got his dad time and we (me about 8 months pregnant) took off to peruse the butt plugs, lubes, skin rags and nipple clamps. We ran into people we knew. We picked up some odds and ends. The cashier showed us how to race vibrators across the counter top. Then we all went back to the new mom’s place to eat ice cream with Amaretto and watch lactation porn. Did you know that was a thing? I didn’t either. You learn something new everyday.
Good times.
MGTOWs, go your own way. The rest of us are doing just fine without you already.
@naltia:
I for one love that meme. My caption for it: “Disclaimer: This is what the MRAs actually believe.”
I also love the fact that every single one of those memes (except the last one) is about how women are terrible. Not about actual men’s issues like unrealistic gender expectations (that women experience as well) that bring about a whole slew of problems, not even about simple, innocent confusion about the state of society. No, it’s all about hating women. That’s what the MRM stands for. Well, that, and comparing rape to things that aren’t rape, throwing all male victims of rape under the bus in one fell swoop.
In conclusion, yes, I love what these memes reveal about the mindset of your average MRA. Well done, meme makers!
@Misogynist dude:
Oh, you’re precious. I see weirwoodtreehugger has already gone through your comment in detail, so I won’t bother (thanks, WWTH!). Suffice to say that as a non-misogynist man, I long for the day when you and your ilk* actually finally leaves society, so the rest of us can go back to making it a place where everyone is treated like people. That sounds like a much nicer place than the one you’re promoting. So go ahead and go away with your head wedged firmly between your ass cheeks. Nobody will miss you.
*I include racists, homophobes, transphobes, libertarians and other icky douchecanoes in this category as well.
@weirwoodtreehugger
Dairanger! It didn’t get a PR adaptation, but here we got to see dubbed SS until 1999.
Seems to me Mr. Misogyny is all in a spammy lather about sperm banks for several misandric reasons:
1. Sperm banks allow women to choose who to reproduce with, and when. Any woman, no matter how lesbian or single or old or un-HB10, gets a chance to have babies. That gives women substantial leverage to dismiss all the whiny waa-waa-waa SPINSTER threats from the manosphere. And if misogynists can’t threaten women with the horror of being ALONE, how will they ever keep them cowed and submissive? We can’t have that.
2. Sperm banks allow women to reproduce without sex. That means somewhere, a man missed out on adding to his lifetime notch count. We can’t have that.
3. Sperm banks generally draw from the pool of 20% of (air quote) “high status” men assumed to be getting 80% of the women. (Actually, it’s closer to 1% – the majority of potential donors get screened out, due to family history, genetic issues, sperm issues, lifestyle issues like smoking/alcohol/drug use, or terrible personality). That isn’t fairrrrr. Hypergamy! We can’t have that.
Basically, sperm banks invert the misogynist fantasy that men get to choose, and women are always the ones who get evaluated, ranked, and rejected. No wonder this guy is terrified of them.
Still, I don’t think men have anything to worry about. Sperm banks aren’t going to put them out of business. People will still prefer to have nookie and form babbies the old-fashioned way. (Just not with Mr. Misogyny, thanks.)
**psst to SittieKitty – I went the donor sperm single-mom route, not out of cackling misandry, but because the right partner simply hadn’t happened along yet. I’ve always wanted kids, and I wanted to have them before I was too old to keep up with them. Best decision ever! I was blessed with two wonderful boys, who have lots of healthy male role models and father figures in their lives. I used an open donor, so they’ll be able to contact him once they turn 18, if they want to. I’m leaving it totally up to them.
That witch meme…
“I want to get married, but all the decent men are sitting in dank wood-panelled basements playing Halo for 18 hours a day so they can avoid having to talk to women.”
Said no one, ever.
Women always claim victimization because they know the naive, ignorant cowardly white knights will fall to their knees for a sniff.
Truefax: This is how the feminist high council suggests we greet each other. We sniff crotches. That’s a thing we do. Totes happens. No, really.
This guy. What can say about his inner life that isn’t obvious? He’s aware that someone has an obsession and that projection is happening. After that it’s him venting his issues. Who spends this much time imagining who people they hate are fucking and what they wear under their clothes? Who argues that other people’s underwear are oppressing them?
*sings*
Mr. Misogyny, that’s who!
Oops. forgot to blockquote.
I don’t get the Men Gone Their Own Way at all.
I can understand why Pick Up Artist exist. They’re despicable, entitled douchebags, but their goal is clear: tricking women into having sex with them, if not outright raping them.
I can even understand why there are some PUAHate dudes out there.They’re despicable, entitled douchebags who think that women owe them sex. They’re just completely unable to approach women.
But the MGTOW really baffled me. What the hell do they want, and why the hell do they think they’re “oppressed”?
Do they want some sex toys? They can have them already. Do they want to leave society? Nobody is stopping them. Why do they feel the need to let people know they’ve decided to leave?
Is it just a big cry for attention or is there something I’m missing?
Pretty much, the whole MGTOW thing is basically sour grapes. They feel like because they can’t get whatever they want from women, they have to take on an attitude of I DONT CARE ABOUT WOMEN ANYWAY IM GOING MY OWN WAY RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE
I think someone above compared it to a child threatening to run away from home and the comparison is accurate.
Also, the whole thing about women who are “fat” (and honestly, there’s so much distortion about what constitutes “fat” is that the term almost has no meaning,) is interesting because a lot of these MRAs/Misogynists are upset that they can’t find a female romantic/sexual partner but, aside from their other issues, generally won’t even consider certain types of women – women who don’t meet their standards essentially. Would they consider a tall woman? A “fat” woman? A transgender woman? A disabled woman? That’s where the whole “fat women are a MRM issue” thing comes from – it’s not JUST an entitlement to women’s bodies, but an entitlement to women’s bodies of their personal choosing, and women NOT having bodies that they find attractive, in and of itself, is “oppression” in their eyes.
Did you Buttercup? That’s awesome. I’ve only ever met one person who’s also done that, and, given she was like, a patient, I couldn’t really talk with her about it. I’m totally going that route because of that reason – I’m not going to wait for kids because the “right” guy hasn’t come along, they don’t have to be connected things in my mind. I’m not gonna lie, it makes me so 😀 to know someone else who’s done it! While I don’t have any concerns/fears about doing it, I still get these “really??? without a man???” looks from people I tell and so it’s kind of been something I haven’t been able to discuss with anyone.
Brooker, I think it’s a combination of “You’ll be sorry when I’m gone! Just you wait!”
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and
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kcjWHWYTfT4/TimRVl0vCRI/AAAAAAAABeU/aK3gbUSkB9k/s1600/Calvin+and+Hobbes+Bad+Mood+Comic.gif
(Yes, I FUCKING LOVE CALVIN AND HOBBES AND I’M SORRY NOT SORRY ABOUT IT!) ;^.^
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H8DzgMl0NDc/TwaOpABIx8I/AAAAAAAAD8c/ZRoTjK7rkck/s1600/2747658_548f19d538.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1MesAhWgJs/TeI8qB3LF1I/AAAAAAAAAQc/ItRQoIEAP6c/s1600/9cec6cf05e0b012ee3bf00163e41dd5b.gif
Is that what “women” do? Is that what women your grandmother’s age do? Do you understand that women is a word that describes many people, not just the group of people you might consider fucking?
This is one of my favourite MRA conspiracy theories because it requires that heterosexual men be the ones with the ultimate power to hire and promote and grade these women more highly than their male colleagues/classmates. After all, if my CEO is a straight lady, I don’t think it will do me much good to flash a little leg for her.
@lacerta viridis:
Exactly. There was an article on Cracked quite a while back where the writer made a comparison between common reactions to fat men and common reactions to fat women that basically boiled down to: When men are fat, they get ridiculed. When women are fat, men get angry, as if the overweight woman had dared to break a sacred, unspoken rule by not conforming to the image of the slim woman who exists primarily for men’s pleasure.
I’m most excited about this part of the spermocalypse:
I get a massage plus the best sperm and the opportunity to control my reproduction. Thanks, feminism!
Without men is fine with me, I’m monogamous, I’ll stick with just man. I’ve already dismounted the cock carousel.
WWTH, excellent troll chasing. Perhaps he will finally go his own way.
NOBODY should ever feel sorry for liking Calvin&Hobbes. If anything, people should be proud of liking them.
By the way, thanks for posting those strips! You made my day funnier.
Yes, those MGTOW are overgrown children. The only difference is when a child says what Calvin says it’s kind of endearing. When a grown man says it, it’s…not endearing at all.
Very creepy, actually.
This is true. The same thing happens to people who aren’t conventionally attractive for other reasons. If they’re men they might get ridiculed. If they’re women they’r subjected to a vicious amount of abuse and hatred, just because they dare to exist and not be an object of sexual desire.
It’s INCREDIBLY bad in visual media. In movies and TV shows, women who are only slightly overweight, or even simply curvy, get called “fat”, and “fat” women are the butt of every cruel joke ever imagined.
Fat men, many of whom are actually fatter than most women who are called fat, are only ridiculed to a certain extent.
The same thing is true for “unattractive” women, who often aren’t “unattractive” at all and are actually attractive if not outright beautiful but get called “ugly” just because they’re not supermodels. Or sometimes they ARE supermodels, but they’re “uglified”, which usually means that they wear bad makeup and unflattering clothes and hairstyles.
Ugly or fat men can also get a “hot” girlfriend. But “ugly” or “fat” women? They’re either portrayed as forever alone or have to “settle down” for the less attractive guys.
I hope that Feminist Frequency will deal with this tropes in a future video, because there’s a lot to talk about.
Sittiekitty – Love all the Calvin & Hobbes! I never realized he was such a little proto-libertarian. Thank goodness he has Hobbes to talk some sense into him.
Sorry to hear you’re getting the side-eye from some of the people in your life. That’s disappointing. Single parenthood doesn’t carry as much stigma as it once did, but there are still people who get nervous and judgy when confronted with other people’s unorthodox life events. I figure, if the manosphere complains about it, then it must be the right thing to do.
I was nervous about telling people once I decided to pull the trigger, but my family and friends turned out to be wildly supportive. Even my crotchety, Fox-watching, rabidly conservative aunts and uncles were receptive. I waited to tell them until the twins were en route, because it was easier for them to come to terms with the idea when it was a done deal and real babies were involved. Once a baby arrives, people tend to forget about the circumstances of their conception in all the excitement of having chubby cheeks to smooch and little toes to count.
Becoming a single mom has a way of strengthening your relationships with people who truly care for you, and weeding out the ones who aren’t worth cultivating. “Those who matter, don’t mind, and those who mind, don’t matter.”
There’s a lot of stories online from women who have gone the same route, if you’re interested in hearing their perspectives. Check out Single Mothers by Choice on Network 54 (they require registration and have a ferocious no-asshat policy), the blogroll at Stirrup Queens, and the California Cryobank forums. I found them all really helpful whenever I had questions, or just wanted to read about another person’s journey. Wishing you all the best of luck in yours!!
Thanks for those Buttercup! I’ll check them out! I think that my family will be supportive, once it gets going, but as I’m not pregnant yet, just doing the tests that are required first, they’re still in the “wait, no guy? single parent? you’ll change your mind once you realise how much work it is and how important it is to have a guy in your life” phase. Especially since I’ve been seeing different genders kind of on and off for the last little bit and my long long relationship went into FWB (and it was awesomeness and I adore him) but is now over. My family are all religious, although mostly tolerant and generally lovely people, and I’m not sure they really “get” me, being atheist, feminist, genderqueer, pansexual, working in obstetrics, and wanting to raise a family. I don’t really chat with them much about that stuff, I have friends for that who are amazing. Though my mom has been super supportive about it so there’s been that.
I love love that the stuffed tiger is the voice of reason, and so obviously set up to be that way, calling Calvin out for his ideas. Ah, Calvin and Hobbes, and by extension Bill Watterson, why are you so awesome?
@Chie Satonaka:
Well, I watched it. It had deepity, which is like truthiness but for profundity. I can’t claim to have understood it all, mind. Probably my brain isn’t advanced enough.
Also, it just bugs me when people make word balloons’ tails touch characters’ mouths. I mean, jeez. Trust us to figure out who’s saying it, and also maybe don’t obscure faces.
There was an awful example in an early X-Men comic where Stan Lee Magneto waxed on so long at some soldiers that the only thing that could be seen below his word balloon were the characters’ legs.
WHTM is the Hobbes to Reddit’s Calvin.
No wait, scratch that. Calvin’s too much of a charming scamp, and Redpillers have zero charm.
They’re more like Spaceman Spiff. Reality is the planet upon which they keep crash-landing their ship.
(That was a tragic day when Bill Watterson retired. I still remember the sadness of opening up the Sunday paper and reading that last strip, which trailed off into whiteness. Bill Watterson was a class act all the way.)
Yeah, I totally get where your family’s coming from…my mom had the same dream for me, that I’d meet someone wonderful and start a family. It was hard for her to give up on that dream. She also had a few “what will the rest of the family think?” moments that she had to come to terms with. (Dad, meanwhile, had to give up on his dream of me marrying into the Kennedys or Rockefellers). They came around once I pointed out that a) having kids doesn’t preclude you from meeting Mr. Wonderful, in fact it may make it more likely, as kids bring you into contact with lots of other dads at the park and school and soccer field, some of whom may turn out to be single; and b) two parents isn’t automatically superior to one parent. It really depends on how committed your partner is to making the family work. (I also pointed out that c) we have a lot of, shall we say, “unconventional” people in our family who have taken eccentric turns in life and been accepted, so this really isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things).
Anyway, my mom and dad are so grateful that I went ahead with this. Both of them adore their grandsons. They’ve brought so much joy to the family and, in a weird way, have kind of helped us heal from various family traumas that we’ve been through in the last 15 – 20 years. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Hopefully your mom will come around as time goes by. Does she live nearby? Would she be able to help out with childcare? Even if she can’t physically help, her advice and guidance will be very valuable, and it will definitely bring the two of you closer together. My mom has loved reliving her baby-raising years through the twins. She’s shared some great stories that I never heard before and she’d almost forgotten about.
RE Bill Watterson:
He’s notorious for trying to stay out of the public eye, but did make at least one appearance after his retirement. Anyone read Pearls before Swine? Start with this strip.
She doesn’t live nearby, but I’m planning on moving near when I have kids anyway, to have help. That’s the really nice thing about my family, I’ll be able to have a strong support network when I have kids. I have mad respect for my mom, and I think she’s pretty wise and will be a great resource of advice and support when I have children.
It’s hilarious to me that these guys constantly complain about marriage “putting a man under a woman’s control” in one breath, then in the next complain about the death of traditional marriage.